In the interdisciplinary lecture series, researchers from various disciplines present their work in individualisation research. The public lectures take place in hybrid format across semesters at the University of Münster and Bielefeld University and are open to all interested parties inside and outside the universities.
Please register seperately for each lecture by using the links below if you would like to receive the Zoom access data for attending online. Registration is not required for attending in person.
Some of the most striking examples of phenotypic change occur along urbanization gradients, such as urban divergence in multiple taxa towards smaller average body sizes. However, it remains largely unknown whether: 1) urbanization affects phenotypic variance in wild populations and 2) urban phenotypic shifts are driven by evolutionary change (i.e., genetic variation). In my talk I will address these gaps by first presenting results from meta- and mega-analyses showing that urbanization can increase phenotypic diversity in bird populations. I will then present results from a common garden experiment that provide trait-specific evidence of evolution in urban great tits. Finally, I will present recent results that examine interactions between urbanization and climate change on the phenological responses of tit populations across Europe.
| 11:15
11:15
Ruben Arslan
Psychological Research Methods | Witten/Herdecke University
If we conceived of the constructs and concepts studied in behavioral science as a map, we would find that it is highly fragmented and directions are hard to come by. Fragmentation has worsened, not decreased, as the field has grown. Partly, this happens because we have too many reverse Columbuses, who, in search of prestige, set out to find a new continent, but just end up renaming India. But partly, we face a real, solvable search problem when trying to connect our fuzzy constructs and flexible measures. In psychology, language and nowadays large language models can help us put the fragments together. But unlike subjective self-reports, individual differences are not limited to human animals, nor is conceptual confusion. Common standards could help us connect our insights and improve our ability to discover the genetic causes of differences.
